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Although the ’08–’09 and ’09–’10 seasons of women’s basketball were not wildly successful ones, they stand out to me as some of my fondest memories in Raiders athletics. For those two seasons, I attended every home game that I feasibly could, supporting my now-wife, #42 Katie (Garman) Kammerdiener ’10. Despite my relative shyness, I was the lone figure high in the stands loudly stomping my feet in an effort to disrupt the opposing teams' free throws. Perhaps that was more embarrassing — for me and the team — than it was effective, but it was something I took some pride in. I like to think I helped take at least a couple points off the board in my career as a fan.

For me, the games provided a healthy outlet to pull me away from study habits that were often overly ambitious to the point of being unhealthy. Through my budding relationship with Katie, I got to know most of the other women on the team, to varying degrees, which provided another level of interest to the games. I wasn't just there cheering for my school's team; I was there to cheer for people I knew, and with whom I could talk after the game. That's something that I feel is fairly uniquely Colgate. Our student-athletes are competing at the highest levels of Division I athletics, but they're not campus superstars. They're peers.

I now work at Colgate, and have a more formal role with Colgate basketball, as I often run the basketball replay system. Though I am primarily scheduled for men's games, I still have an affinity for the women's games. It has been particularly fun to see Candice Green ’12 — who I watched play as a first-year and sophomore while I was a student — return to the team as an assistant coach. Likewise, during my role as a staff member on campus, it was good to watch Katie Curtis ’17 come into the program, develop as a player, and then graduate into the team's operations manager, and now assistant coach.